A FORMER Runcorn businessman was killed when he was run over by a car six times in front of horrified eye witnesses.

Onlookers claimed dad-of-three Christopher Maxfield, 49, was killed after he was involved in an argument in a Southport takeaway.

They said he was dragged along under a white Volkswagen Golf as he was run over up to six times, on Nevill Street at 12.30am on Friday.

The car was traced to an address in Southport, where a 26-year-old man and a 51-year-old woman were arrested on suspicion of murder.

Mr Maxfield left Weston Point several years ago after a string of failed business ventures. His first wife and family and his parents still live in Runcorn.

He had been in the Pizzeria Kebab Hut takeaway with five other people when a row broke out.

He left minutes later and was run over yards from the restaurant.

A witness said: 'It was horrific. The car ran him over again and again. It must have run over him about six times. He just kept getting dragged along underneath. I've never seen anything like it in my life. Then the car sped off.'

Another onlooker added: 'I couldn't believe it. The car just kept going over him. I saw it go over him once and then it reversed and went over him another five times.'

Mr Maxfield leaves a widow, Amanda, his second wife. He is understood to have had two young children and a grown-up child and ran a haulage business.

Tributes were last night paid to the 'warm-hearted' man who fought to save St Teresa's Primary school in Birkdale, when it was threatened with closure last year under Sefton council's primary school re-organ-isation plan.

Karen Sinicrope, who led the steering committee alongside Mr Maxfield, said: 'He was a very kind person who was very well thought of.

'He was instrumental in saving the school. He worked very hard, putting in a lot of hours, often working through the night to put information together. He would drop everything and rush out for meetings, no matter how busy he was at work.

'He was a wonderful man. It's absolutely terrible.' Father John Gaine, chair of governors at the school, said: 'Chris was a very warm and likeable person, very competent and a very good family man. God rest his soul. I feel very deeply for his wife and children.'